A Comparative Study Based on Seymour Sarason's J
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository AN ARCHIVAL TEST OF THE EFFICACY OF JAMES COMER’S SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PLAN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BASED ON SEYMOUR SARASON’S “FAILURE OF SCHOOL REFORM” DESCRIPTORS John Tharp A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the School of Education. Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by Advisor: Dr. Fenwick English Reader: Dr. Kathleen Brown Reader: Dr. Neil Shipman © 2007 John Tharp ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT John Tharp An Archival Test of the Efficacy of James Comer’s School Development Plan: A Comparative Study Based on Seymour Sarason’s “Failure of School Reform” Descriptors (Under the direction of Dr. Fenwick W. English) The purpose of this study was to determine if the success or failure of the Comer School Development Plan (SDP) could be predicted by assessing it according to Sarason’s (1990, 1993, 2002, 2004) description of why all school reform ideas fail. The researcher created a rubric based on Sarason’s descriptors. The rubric contained four elements and twenty-six indicators of observable characteristics. It served as a qualitative tool for a comparative assessment that predicted the success potential of the SDP reform plan. This provided a systematic way to compare archival data collected by the researcher. The researcher chose five reform plans to compare to the SDP: the Lancastrian Plan, Age-graded Plan, Gary Plan, Trump Plan, and Coalition of Essential Schools Plan. The plans featured ample archival data, occurred at different historical time periods, were popular and spread to many schools and school systems, and were thematically similar to the SDP in that each strove to help public education live up to its democratic goals. The researcher offered recommendations for policymakers. Time, money, and human effort were wasted on reform ideas that failed. Future reform plans must pay attention to present societal conditions in order to succeed. Reform plans can only make iv significant change outside of the current system of schooling. Policymakers must support educational change that is more natural and consistent with million-year-old human developmental strategies (Bernhard, 1988). When crafting school reform, policymakers should give more consideration to the family and to the common good. New schooling proposals put forth in this study will serve low SES students better than traditional schooling. The primary education goal for twenty-first century youth should be the development of critical minded, reflective thinkers who can come up with creative solutions to problems novel to their times. The egg-crate, curiosity stifling, discipline- based nineteenth century government agency controlled schooling configuration cannot produce this result. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Dr. Fenwick English for his encouragement, guidance and unwavering support throughout this study. Thanks to Dr. Kathleen Brown and Dr. Neil Shipman for their helpful feedback and for always being in my corner. Thanks to my parents for instilling in me the virtues of commitment and industriousness and for ingraining in me a high respect for teachers and the educational enterprise. Also, thanks to my brother Paul for listening, encouraging, and editing. Most of all, thanks to my wife Robin and my daughter Jada for their loving support and sacrifice over the past several years. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................1 Background..................................................................................................1 Purpose of the Study....................................................................................2 Significance of the Study.............................................................................3 Definition of Terms .....................................................................................4 A General Methodological Overview........................................................13 How the Researcher Assessed the SDP.........................................13 How the Sarason Descriptors were Validated..............................14 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................15 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE........................................17 Introduction ...............................................................................................17 Democracy and the Creation of Democratic Education ............................22 School Reform: Searching for Equity, Fraternity and Natural Rights ......25 A Case History of School Desegregation ..................................................27 Was Education Reform Recycled?.............................................................30 The Lancastrian Plan .................................................................................32 The Age-Graded Plan................................................................................40 The Gary Plan............................................................................................47 The Trump Plan.........................................................................................54 The Coalition of Essential Schools Plan....................................................61 The Comer School Development Plan ......................................................67 School Reform and Child Development....................................................78 Why the SDP?: The Significant Historical Origins of Comer’s Plan................................................................80 Philosophical Beliefs Underlying the SDP....................................81 Summary....................................................................................................86 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS AND DESIGN................................................87 Introduction ...............................................................................................87 Research Questions ...................................................................................88 Research Approach....................................................................................89 Research Design........................................................................................89 Change Theory...............................................................................99 vii Teaching Theory ..........................................................................104 The Teaching Profession..............................................................109 School Power and Politics...........................................................111 Plan Selection ..............................................................................114 Role of the Researcher.................................................................115 Goals and Procedures ..............................................................................116 Data Set and Treatment of the Data.........................................................117 Data Collection Techniques........................................................118 Data Management.......................................................................118 Data Analysis Strategies .............................................................118 Summary..................................................................................................119 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS ...........................................................................120 Introduction .............................................................................................120 Narrative of the School Development Plan.............................................122 Site-based Decision Making........................................................122 A Mental Health Team ................................................................123 A Plan for Parent Involvement....................................................124 Consensus in all Major Decisions...............................................125 A No-Fault Ideology Practiced by Adults ...................................125 Equitable Education Programs...................................................126 Schooling Based on Child Development .....................................126 Summary of the Lancastrian Plan............................................................127 Change Theory for Lancastrian Plan ..........................................129 Teaching Theory for Lancastrian Plan........................................131 The Teaching Profession for Lancastrian Plan...........................134 School Power and Politics for Lancastrian Plan ........................136 Summary of the Age-Graded Plan...........................................................138 Change Theory for Age-graded Plan...........................................140 Teaching Theory for Age-graded Plan ........................................142 The Teaching Profession for Age-graded Plan ...........................144 School Power and Politics for Age-graded Plan.........................146 Summary of the Gary Plan ......................................................................148